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An installation by Xu Bing at the British Museum

Discover the secrets behind this shadow-and-light box installation by contemporary artist Xu Bing, inspired by a Chinese painting in the Museum's collection. Xu Bing's installation at the British Museum is 5 meters tall and is made using materials such as hemp fibers, dry plants, corn husks, crumpled paper and debris sourced from sites across London. © Trustees of the British Museum. Created by British Museum.

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Video transcript

super peaceful Donna yeah sure kanji time for one short on the EEG Imam shamil absorption Martina talking like she's not working on a sequel for the British Museum it's a great delight to have Xu Bing in residence actually creating a work of art on site for us and what we're doing in this work of art is seeing Xu Bing respond in a very lively way to a painting that was done by longshoremen in 1654 and what he's doing is taking that painting as his inspiration wajarri the what the truth of the gong so Anna sure sure sure it'll come home hearth Sangha watch Fisher sent out lagoons arena sure John Torres woman made a natural inner side John Gurda shell mother cotton Bruner she didn't owe patron fundação her Valley to get to where we are now we've gone through many stages it began with a plain wooden box with acrylic panels we moved from there to Kew Gardens were assembled a massive collection of dry plant material we brought that back to the British Museum where was frozen for three days we proceeded to create a grid on the back of the box which was then used to create a reverse drawing in the original painting we then continued to remove the grid and apply in a very slapdash manner the natural materials we've collected then tubing arrived and under his direction with his participation we've created a work work Judy here a chinois Rhonda Jaffe ho ho ho and a hey Luce so trench and he can feet on purely her you made an Jean de Tejada token surgeon eaten chicken vamos a la hey la hora en la Patrona a pimp or a yonder venture boom ugh hello to generate on-topic k hôso en todo de dôme Giotto redrawn canva we don't see sh t ja ja Herr von Sherman de be true that she is Olga she young yo Yoshi champion de Letran gender well Roger trillion Giada Costello so in Akron I can see button didn't OD infection say ho chun-yan Donna she's a junkie mm kinda the pussy licker should see the hoo-ha should eat hushing the young for the work of an ad hoc a future fit hunt you da de góngora MOFA it'll show social say you need Ron Conan's a hawk he makes the viewer think about what is seeing how does the mind work how do we visualize things why do we look at his work of art and see a gigantic huge finished hanging scroll painted with brush and ink when in fact it is created entirely through plant material bits of crumpled newspaper there's not a brush stroke there so he's making us think he makes the human mind work we're in the last few minutes of the installation the museum has been closed for a few hours now I'm pushing the 9:30 deadline I think it's 10:30 now Donegal John foodarama planning in Manila ok Dickerman if you don't go cleaner wonderful is the time when they can only mean either tension tree shall ever meet feet are parallel - whoa - Angela donor give a thumb war impudent rental so you know the three Trenton and some trophy Hudsonville her for another contractor who died in getting more clean for sure II wanna mean for sure from copa-data Trenton Horror Show you killed it they need to find in the quarter sure her a little hot cantata the professor in court readable watching an apple pie you